DD fails to draw the crowds

Today's Aberdeen Press and Journal reports that "only 15 or so people bothered to turn up at the hotel in Dyce to listen to the man who wants to be Britain's next prime minister". It concludes:

"Ultimately, one poorly attended meeting in Aberdeen on a cold day will not make or break either man, but it does give an insight into the bigger picture one of them will have to address. If one of the party's leading members, a possible future prime minister, cannot entice out of their homes the faithful and those on whom he should be able to count for support, what chance does either man have of selling the redesigned Tory brand to the hostile and suspicious?"

The Perth Hustings - addressed by both contenders - was much better attended and Oberon Houston's report can be read here.

Comments

Clearly the word did not get out to local and uni association members. Whether that's the fault of Davis's campaign team or the local assocs we can only speculate - although we can see that the campaign team didn't have the sense to make use of the events list of this esteemed blog.

Getting people out to the events is the responsibility of the campaign team. The candidates only appear to have been to Scotland once, so Davis really has no excuse. If Cameron's pre-hustings event was poorly attended he would have no excuse either.

Could be that the simple reason for lack of attendance to this event was that so few Conservatives are now interested about what David Davies as to say. They just want to hear what the next leader as to say!

There are not too many "big "cities/towns in Scotland so I suppose Aberdeen was a natural choice.

However, Aberdeen is not very Conservative friendly at present. In Aberdeen North and West Labour significantly increased their majorities. Anne Begg held on in South.

In Gordon, Malcolm Bruce (Lib Dem), had his majority fall. Con got pushed from second to third and were overtaken by Labour. I accept they were new boundaries but work clearly needs to be done by the Conservatives in the cold North.

If David Davis wins the election the self same people who are running his campaign will be running the party,
As this as been a tale of total incompetance from start to finish all I can say is god help us all if that were to happen.

Scottish Conservative politics are in a state of flux at the moment. The McLetchie saga has been damaging to morale. One can only hope that new Leader and Annabel Goldie can unify the Scottish party and take it forward.

"If David Davis wins the election the self same people who are running his campaign will be running the party, "

More worrying is the notion that if Cameron becomes leader, the Notting Hill set will be running the party. We might even get a name change (what about "Blue Labour"?).

I also reject the notion that we will suddenly become electable. The Tories are going to look ridiculously lightweight going into the next election. George Osborne is a weedy schoolboy, who will get seriously mocked and torn to pieces the moment anyone pays any attention to him. And Cameron's other main team members, Vaizey, Letwin, Gove, Boris Johnson all lack clout.

Add to that the fact that we will spend half our time talking about things like "climate change", and who's to say that Cameron won't do much worse than a Michael Howard leadership?

Remember Cameron's media honeymoon won't last long. They are being charitable to him right now. It won't last. He and Osborne WILL be found out.

I'm already beginning to hope that they get found out early enough for us to change the leader in time for the next election. I am sure that I'm not the only Tory who thinks this way.

No more divisive Tory leader could possibly be chosen. The only reason that he hasn't divided the party already is that people haven't sussed him out yet. Just give it time.

In Cardiff the DD event was better attended than 15 but to be honest it wasn't packed and there were not many who were not sporting DD badges or t-shirts, suggesting he was largely addressing the converted. To link back to his near namesake - David Davies' parents were in the DD audience! Now there's a useless fact for the day.

"Well, evidenly, judged by the tones of the Vince-Archers and John Hustings of the world, quite a few Conservatives aren't yet tired of the eternal game of the 'let's fight each other, not Labour'."

Why am I being dragged into this thread? And I believe it is your candidate that is talking about turning the Conservatives into a rubber stamp for Blair's half-baked 'reforms' and thereby not fighting Labour. The reason I am opposed to Cameron is because I think we should be fighting Labour instead of turning ourselves into a support act or imitation of New Labour.

Ivy League Boy is for getting rid of all us dissenters doncha know. The great I Am has spoken. The collective wisdom says Cameron is the man - does that mean Ivy League Boy has spoken to all 250,000 or so members?